The most hotly anticipated State Senate election this year is in the 19th District covering Santa Barbara and Ventura County, between Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Tony Strickland. Though the two are almost polar opposites, the chunk of the district in Santa Barbara, where residents have long memories about the 1969 oil spill, makes it impossible for Republicans to win with their "Drill Now" message on energy. So Tony Strickland opted to run some ads that Al Gore might have run were he to be contesting in the district, highlighting renewable energy through wind, solar, algae, tidal and other forms. This is completely at odds with Strickland's doctrinaire Republican record, with votes against green building standards, minimum renewable energy standards, and even fuel-efficient tires. Strickland has taken money from Big Oil and stood with global warming denialists in the recent past. It's incongruous for him to carry a pro-environment message.
So I hooked up with the Courage Campaign and the California League of Conservation Voters to put together a little video highlighting this incongruity.
What's interesting is that the Courage Campaign's Web tool invited those supporters who received their email blast to spread the word, and they were so successful, both online political reporters at the Ventura County Star, the region's biggest newspaper, covered the video. More important, the Jackson campaign has been energized to fight back against some of Strickland allies' misleading ads on taxes, and in doing so buttresses the outside groups' take about Strickland's terrible environmental record.
So progressive groups are ensuring that Strickland gets away with nothing in this race, and in turn the Jackson campaign is fighting back as well and counter-punching swiftly and effectively. This is a growing success story in the 19th.
Over-reliance on multiple economic bubbles has led this state to a worse job profile than Ohio and a state government utterly incapacitated to do anything about it.
SACRAMENTO -- California's unemployment rate climbed to a 12-year high last month as the state continued to bleed jobs in the real estate and construction industries.
The rate jumped to 7.3% in July from 7% in June. It was even worse in the Inland Empire, where the unemployment rate is approaching 9%, the state reported Friday.
"The depth and magnitude of the job losses are accelerating, clearly," said Esmael Adibi, director of economic research at Chapman University in Orange.
Adibi and other economists believe unemployment will continue rising next year even if the economy stabilizes. "Unfortunately, the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator," he said.
Once the economy improves, people who have fallen out of the job market will jump back in, which will keep the unemployment rate well into the 7% range through much of next year, he said.
California has lost jobs in 10 of the past 12 months, and the rate is 2 points higher than it was just a year ago.
I think it's very clear how we got here. Nationally, multinational corporations have moved manufacturing jobs overseas and narrowed the job market to few options beyond the service sector. The knowledge economy and the housing boom provided an artificial cushion, but when they went bust there were no alternatives for the middle class. And when the legislature is so sclerotic and logjammed that they can't respond to any crisis, the cruelties of the free market take over.
What's also clear is that they way out of this is with a sustainable new economy based on green-collar manufacturing jobs that stay right here. The need to innovate our way out of the climate crisis provides a stellar opportunity that is starting to be realized.
Companies will build two solar power plants in California that together will put out more than 12 times as much electricity as the largest such plant today, the latest indication that solar energy is starting to achieve significant scale.
The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant. A megawatt is enough power to run a large Wal-Mart store.
The power will be sold to Pacific Gas & Electric, which is under a state mandate to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The utility said that it expected the new plants, which will use photovoltaic technology to turn sunlight directly into electricity, to be competitive with other renewable energy sources, including wind turbines and solar thermal plants, which use the sun's heat to boil water.
"These market-leading projects we have in California are something that can be extrapolated around the world," Jennifer Zerwer, a spokeswoman for the utility, said. "It's a milestone."
This is about 57 times the largest photovoltaic plant currently in the United States. Without the state mandate it simply would not be built. So there's a role to play for the state in encouraging job growth in the green sector. This is a time with a lot of suffering, but with proper effort that could turn around. That, and letting the government actually do their job.
I am proud to do some work opposing Prop 7, but I'll get into more details about that later.
Ballot propositions are big business here in California. I'm pretty sure this is not what Hiram Johnson had in mind with this whole initiative process, but you could write a whole other book about that. With all these initiatives, we end with a lot of work for some election lawyers. Like we saw with the Prop 8 folks who are suing AG Jerry Brown over the hate amendment's title, the Yes on 7 folks didn't like some of the ballot arguments from the No side.
Long story short, one of the arguments against Prop 7 is that some language in the text of the proposition could lead to an impossible economic situation for small (<30 MegaWatts) renewable providers. The Yes folks wanted to boot that from the ballot arguments, because, well, they they just didn't want you hearing about that messy drafting stuff. Well, sometimes the truth hurts, as a Sacramento superior court has allowed the language to stay. More over the flip.
CALIFORNIA TAKES ANOTHER GIANT LEAP ON GLOBAL WARMING POLICY AIR BOARD RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO CUT POLLUTION
SACRAMENTO (June 26, 2008) - The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the nation's most comprehensive plan to date for reducing the pollution that causes global warming. While the plan is still a proposal, it represents the furthest step forward any state has taken in the fight against global warming, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Patricia Monahan, the director of UCS's California office, said CARB's plan would add more momentum to the fight against global warming. "California is showing the rest of the country how we can build a clean energy economy," she said. "There's no drilling our way out of energy problems. As energy prices skyrocket, consumers need real alternatives that sip rather than guzzle, and that are homegrown instead of imported."
The 75+ page plan includes a range of policy recommendations. Chief among them is increasing the state's renewable electricity standard. The plan also contains provisions for a regional cap-and-trade program that could work in harmony with other more specific policies to reduce pollution economywide. The plan also says CARB will consider a vehicle "feebate" program that would provide incentives to consumers to buy cleaner cars.
In addition, the proposal includes plans to reduce emissions from heavy-duty trucks with hybrid engine technology and better fuel economy. Like many of CARB's proposals, the heavy-duty truck provisions would improve public health by also reducing smog-forming pollution. The plan also advocates for a high-speed train system in California.
Christopher Busch, a UCS climate economist, pointed out that many of the draft plan's policies would save consumers money and yield economic benefits, while the overall cost of implementing the plan would likely be negligible. "Fundamentally, we're talking about making our economy more efficient, which will give us energy savings," he said. "And investing in clean, renewable energy will make our electricity and fuel supplies more diverse, and insulate us from price swings in the fossil fuel market."
Busch added that global warming pollution reduction strategies also would provide public health benefits by cleaning up the air as well as support the state's growing clean technology industries. "California has proven time and again that we can clean our air and grow our economy," he said. "Now the state is going to prove the same thing with global warming."
The renewable electricity standard in the plan would require utilities to generate 33 percent of their electricity from clean, renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, by 2020. Such a standard would reduce global warming pollution by an amount equivalent to avoiding the construction of 10 new large fossil fuel power plants or removing nearly 3 million cars from the road. And such a standard could save residents money on their electricity bills by displacing natural gas. Additionally, it would reduce smog-forming pollution, create new green-collar jobs in the state, and bolster California's growing clean technology sector.
"California has a wealth of renewable electricity potential we aren't tapping into yet," said Dan Kalb, UCS's California policy coordinator. "Shifting to clean, safe sources of carbon-free electricity in a smart and well-planned manner is a win for the environment, the economy and consumers."
Blogged yesterday on DesertBlog about the Sunrise Powerlink hearings in San Diego, and the viral videos about Sunrise Powerlink that are spreading across the Internet. SDG&E and its Chamber of Commerce minions are spamming the Internet to keep their astroturf support group's website high in Google rankings.
Fortunately, there are three videos out there that tell the truth about the Sunrise Powerlink, and you can help spread their message. You can help boost one of the video's search results simply by viewing it and you can also boost its ranking, along with several other anti-Powerlink sites, by voting for them on hugg.com, the green social bookmarking site of Treehugger.com.
As I posted over on DesertBlog, the comment deadline on the Sunrise Powerlink Draft Environmental Impact Report is April 11th. As SDG&E rolls out its "False Choice" advertising campaign for the Powerlink -- more on that tomorrow -- it's vital that the Public Utilities Commission hear that there are better alternatives to this destructive transmission line, ones that will provide San Diego with clean, renewable and reliable energy, while reducing greenhouse gases by 50%.
If you're brand new to the Sunrise Powerlink issue, it's a proposed 150-mile transmission line between Imperial County and San Diego. Like the San Onofre Toll Road, it would cross a State Park, in this case Anza-Borrego. It would also tie San Diego in to a fossil-fuel future, despite all the "green energy" hype San Diego Gas & Electric puts out. In fact, the EIR found that the powerline would actually cause a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, even were it to carry 100% solar power (which it won't). For more details on the truth about the Sunrise Powerlink, go to the San Diego Smart Energy Solutions Campaign website or check out the EIR.
While SDG&E wants to present us with a false choice between the Sunrise Powerlink and polluting power plants on the coast, there really is a better alternative that will rely less on fossil fuels and more on distributed generation, locally produced solar, combined heat and power technology, energy efficiency, and distribution system improvements. Together, all of these will provide San Diego with reliable, secure, clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%, all with less cost to ratepayers. This is the plan outlined in "San Diego Smart Energy 2020," and you can read more about it here.
BTW, for Californians outside the SDG&E service area, you'll also be paying for the Sunrise Powerlink with fees you pay through your own energy utility. Strange, but true!
Feel ready to submit a comment? Doing so is easy. Just send an e-mail to the Aspen Environmental Group (the company writing the EIR): sunrise@aspeneg.com. Make sure to include your name, address and telephone number. The CPUC also maintains a webpage with more details on the DEIR and how to comment. Do it by April 11th!
In addition to your own reasons for opposing the Sunrise Powerlink, make sure to insist that the Final EIR fully analyze "San Diego Smart Energy 2020" as a viable alternative to the Powerlink.
For more detailed comment letter points, see the Desert Protective Council's Sunrise Powerlink page.
I have the greatest respect for Barbara Boxer and the work she's doing on the issue of global warming. However, I think it's a shortsighted approach for working to pass a bill that she thinks George Bush can sign, a climate change bill that would set up a cap and trade system and just give carbon credits away to polluting industries. There's been a simmering battle between environmental groups on this bill, and now it's exploded into the open, with the Sierra Club coming out against the bill, known as Lieberman-Warner (which should tell you something).
Fast-forward to present day: the carbon industries are lobbying to get a deal done this year that would give away carbon permits free of charge to existing polluters -- bribing the sluggish, and slowing down innovation. And politicians are telling us that while it would be better to auction these permits and make polluters pay for putting carbon dioxide into our atmosphere, creating that market unfortunately gets in the way of the politics.
We are being urged to compromise -- to put a system in place quickly, even if it is the wrong system. Given that we only have one chance to get this right before it's too late, our top priority must be to make sure that we do not settle prematurely and sign a weak bill into law in the name of doing something about global warming. With momentum for strong action and a friendlier Congress and White House building every day, it's no coincidence that some wish to settle their accounts now.
This will tie the hands of the Presidential candidates on the Democratic side, who have far better proposals for their cap and trade system, including selling the carbon credits at a 100% auction, using the funds to promote green energy and research for renewables. It's the wrong bill at the wrong time.
Thanks to Dave Roberts at Gristmill I learned today that there is an operating distributed power plant in Germany that could allow that country to go to 100% renewable energy by 2050. The study / pilot project came out of the University of Kassel.
We have to recognize the relationship between global warming and "global warring". Just as dependence on foreign oil has led to wars in the Middle East, allocating an outrageous amount of our budget to the Pentagon facilitates and preserves this dependence on foreign oil. Dennis Kucinich understands this connection and so, as stated above, will slash the Pentagon budget by 15% as his first step to move away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable and renewable fuels and energy sources. As stated above, this money will go to education, as well as creating his Works Green Administration (WGA). The WGA will couple the EPA with NASA to develop new technologies to utilize alternative fuels and energies.
As long as we're talking about what we're all doing this weekend, I will be your intrepid reporter tomorrow, live from the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles at the Presidential Forum on Global Warming and Our Energy Future, sponsored by the California League of Conservation Voters, the enviro website Grist and PRI's "Living On Earth" radio program. Grist will have a live webcast of the forum tomorrow at 2:00pm PT. You can find it here. I'm expecting to liveblog the event at Calitics as well.
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich are scheduled to attend, and speak for a half-hour on the environmental and energy proposals they would support as President. The good news is that practically all of our Democratic candidates, even the ones who aren't attending, have put out strong policies on fighting global warming and expanding renewable energy, from Chris Dodd's corporate carbon tax to Bill Richardson's ambitious CAFE standard porposal (50MPG) to Barack Obama's 100% auction for a cap-and-trade system, where polluters would have to buy their carbon credits and not be given them. Clinton and Edwards have also put out bold proposals in this arena, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about them tomorrow.
One thing you all can do TODAY is take action on the imminent federal energy bill. There are three planks that everyone would like to see in it; a federal renewable energy standard that would mandate a healthy percentage of all electricity come from renewables like solar and wind; tax incentives for renewable energy, both for corporations AND for individuals who put solar panels on their house (this would be vital is California is to reach its One Million Solar Roofs Initiative), and a major increase in CAFE standards. I believe that the first two would be signed by the President; he signed similiar legislation as the governor of Texas, and now Texas has MORE wind power than California. Environment California is asking people to email Speaker Pelosi today and ask her to stand strong on the federal energy bill.
UPDATE: This ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is a positive step, requiring the Bush Administration to force SUVs and light trucks to meet the already-meager federal CAFE standards. This would close a loophole the automakers have been using for a while.
(Like Al Gore has always said, the climate crisis is both a danger and an opportunity. As an aside, here at yKos, Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid were held up by Shrub's FISA demands. We here at Calitics wish Rep. Solis the best of luck in helping to advocate a reasonable and balanced approach towards the use of eavesdropping. Rep. Solis is always somebody we can count on to work for good, progressive public policy. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Well, the Republican Minority is intent on obstructing our progress on important health, appropriations, and energy bills, so we find ourselves in session on this Saturday morning.
Today the House is considering H.R. 3220, The New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act. I'm very pleased that Title I of this comprehensive bill is the Green Jobs Act, legislation (H.R. 2847) I introduced to authorize $125 million for workforce training targeted at veterans, displaced workers, and individuals - including at risk youth - who seek employment pathways out of poverty. Training would be for jobs in such sectors as green building, energy efficiency and retrofit - jobs that can lead to self-sufficiency and prosperity through higher wages, access to benefits and more career choices.
The Green Jobs Act also creates groundbreaking "Pathways Out of Poverty" grants to specifically target individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line or self-sufficiency standard for local areas where the training occurs. The Pathways Out of Poverty grants will help ensure that this new and profitable green collar sector of the American workforce is open to all Americans, regardless of their current income level. With proper training and targeted work force investment, we can help retrain existing workers whose current jobs are becoming obsolete and lift low-income workers out of poverty and into the expanding field of green collar jobs.
The strength of our nation's economy depends on the availability of a highly skilled and well trained workforce. We owe it to future generations to have the courage and commitment to choose a path toward a sustainable, secure energy future through a commitment to a green collar economy.
I look forward to the House passing this important legislation today and urge you to contact President Bush to express your support for it too.
Join us and our panel as we look at the status of energy today and the policy and scientific solutions. Are you worried about peak oil? Feel a squeeze from high gas prices? Come to the Science Cafe Energy Forum and participate in a panel discussion on energy and the issues we face today.
Panel:
- U.S. Rep. John Campbell (R-Newport Beach)
- Dr. Mark Musculus, Sandia National Laboratories California
- Mr. Jim Maclay, Doctoral Candidate (LEED Certified), UC Irvine National Fuel Cell Research Center
Moderator:
Mr. Pat Brennan, Environment Editor, The Orange County Register
Follow me after the flip for all the details about today's event...
Ever since Senator Barbara Boxer asked this question earlier today, I've been thinking about it. I know that this is already becoming one of the great challenges of our time. I know that this is something that we simply cannot afford to ignore...
So what's being done about it? What can be done about it, when the White House has tried to deceive us into thinking that it's not even a problem?
Well, solutions are being worked out. Follow me after the flip for more...
